Including the exhibitions Tulane has played four games and scored at least 80 points in each of them. That’s imprressive, regardless of who you are playing. Tulane shot above 50% in the two regular season match-ups. Tulane, in its second year with Coach Mike Dunleavy are making shots that the were missing last year. The ball movement has been quite the art, great to watch. This is a far better team than last year. If you can score, you’ll find lots of W’s on the schedule.

Robert1969 wrote:Including the exhibitions Tulane has played four games and scored at least 80 points in each of them. That’s imprressive, regardless of who you are playing. Tulane shot above 50% in the two regular season match-ups. Tulane, in its second year with Coach Mike Dunleavy are making shots that the were missing last year. The ball movement has been quite the art, great to watch. This is a far better team than last year. If you can score, you’ll find lots of W’s on the schedule.

This is a REALLY important point. How many times in the past few years have we actually gotten the good looks at the basket and missed, costing us a shot at a win. This year, these guys aren't missing very much. A significant number of these shots are also being made with hands in the face as well. This team will score points and when you score, you always have a chance. The defense needs to be improved but a lot of it looks like communication and that should get better as we move through the season. Sehic is an enormous addition down low, he takes up a LOT of space going after rebounds and has made some shots from outside as well. For anyone who has not seen them yet, it's worth your time. You have not seen a Tulane team like this in a long time.

Robert1969 wrote:Including the exhibitions Tulane has played four games and scored at least 80 points in each of them. That’s imprressive, regardless of who you are playing. Tulane shot above 50% in the two regular season match-ups. Tulane, in its second year with Coach Mike Dunleavy are making shots that the were missing last year. The ball movement has been quite the art, great to watch. This is a far better team than last year. If you can score, you’ll find lots of W’s on the schedule.

This is a REALLY important point. How many times in the past few years have we actually gotten the good looks at the basket and missed, costing us a shot at a win. This year, these guys aren't missing very much. A significant number of these shots are also being made with hands in the face as well. This team will score points and when you score, you always have a chance. The defense needs to be improved but a lot of it looks like communication and that should get better as we move through the season. Sehic is an enormous addition down low, he takes up a LOT of space going after rebounds and has made some shots from outside as well. For anyone who has not seen them yet, it's worth your time. You have not seen a Tulane team like this in a long time.

Hope you guys are right. I've bought-in way too early in the past and still believe it's too early to tell if we'll be competitive in conference. Measuring improvement over last year is like saying something tastes better than dog sh*t. Really hard not to meet that criteria.

GreenLantern wrote:I don't think anyone is guaranteeing a post-season appearance. I am saying that anyone who fails to see a dramatic improvement is not watching the games. We've got very promising additions (Cornish and Sehic). We've got a good incoming freshman class (Koka, Barrett, Daniels, Ajang). Our returning players are leaner, faster, and more accurate shooters (e.g. Blake Paul). The result? Our bench is much deeper. To wit, this time a year ago Sammis Reyes was getting significant playing time in every game. In the first two games this season, he has been on the floor only in the last couple minutes of last night's game (about the same as Riley Conroy). Von Julien averaged 20 minutes per game in his first season and had he not transferred, I doubt he would see any playing time.

In our scheduled 18 conference games, I feel that I am wildly optimistic by predicting a 6-12 record. I don't think that will get us into the NIT, but it will be a helluva lot better than last year and should give everyone hope that Coach Dunleavy is turning the program around. I'm ready for a little hope. I don't apologize for the reckless optimism. I think we've been kicked in the teeth for so long in so many sports that we are reluctant to acknowledge a positive trend when we see it.

Why not get everyone on the record and start a new thread: Basketball Prediction for Conference Play.

This.

There is so little enthusiasm towards the whole athletic program at this point that no one even started a Basketball Season Prediction Thread. Hopefully this team starts playing defense and rebounding better against quality opposition and then maybe we'll get some enthusiasm going .

Robert1969 wrote:Including the exhibitions Tulane has played four games and scored at least 80 points in each of them. That’s imprressive, regardless of who you are playing. Tulane shot above 50% in the two regular season match-ups. Tulane, in its second year with Coach Mike Dunleavy are making shots that the were missing last year. The ball movement has been quite the art, great to watch. This is a far better team than last year. If you can score, you’ll find lots of W’s on the schedule.

It is early but right now this team is showing the type of improvement you hope to see in the second year of a coaching regime. We haven't had that yet in football with only two games remaining. Hopefully in basketball we see it for the whole season.